Oral simvastatin as an antilipemic therapy: effect on creatine kinase in hypercholesterolemic subjects

This study was aimed at evaluating the short-term efficacy and effect on serum creatine kinase of simvastatin, a recently available antilipemic drug, as a monotherapy for hypercholesterolemic patients. This prospective study was performed at the Outpatient Division, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital. All 45 Thai hypercholesterolemic subjects (aged 30 to 60 years) who were unable to normalize cholesterol by dietary means were recruited in this study. All subjects were assigned to receive oral simvastatin therapy (dose 10 mg/day) for a 2-month study. Before initiation of therapy, monitoring of lipid profile and serum creatine kinase levels was performed. Lipid profile and serum creatine kinase enzyme determinations were also performed 4 weeks after initial treatment and at the the end. After 8 weeks of therapy, total cholesterol had significantly declined from 267 +/- 33 mg/dL to 192 +/- 32 mg/dL, while no significant change in the levels of the serum creatine kinase (p > 0.05) was observed. Clinical follow-up and blood chemistry profile did not indicate any muscle side effects from oral simvastatin therapy.

simvastatin is an effective oral antilipemic agent for treating Thai patients with hypercholesterolemia. Adverse effects presenting as elevation of the serum creatine kinase were not experienced by this group of patients.